Happy New Year. I hope this year has more promise than 2017. No matter where you live in the world, there has been some natural and human disasters during 2017, and who knows what will happen this year?

Well, 2018 has officially begun, at least in some parts of the world. The
first to welcome the new year are people in the Pacific islands of
Samoa, Tonga and Kiritimati, an atoll in the ocean also known as
Christmas Island, part of the republic of Kiribati.

Samoa, a
country comprising the westernmost group of Polynesia’s Samoan Islands
where less than 200,000 people live, was once one of the last places in
the world to celebrate the New Year. Then, in 2011, it decided to change
its international dateline to align more closely with New Zealand and
Australia in a bid to improve trade ties.

American Samoa however decided to stick with the international dateline,
which is now crossing between the two island groups. This means that
those who really love New Year’s celebrations could be in Samoa on Jan.
1, take a boat to cross the 100 miles to American Samoa, and party on
New Year’s Eve all over again.

Auckland

New Zealand entered 2018 an hour after Samoa. Fireworks lit up the
sky over the city of Auckland and in Wellington, the first major capital
to welcome the new year.

The Wellington City Council organized
the celebrations at the Whareipo Lagoon in the city center, an area that
was only given its official name in 2015. The word ‘Whairepo’ is the
Māori name for the eagle ray that feed and shelter in the lagoon.

Eastern Australia’s cities of Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and also Honiara,
entered 2018 two hours after New Zealand and about an hour after Anadyr,
Russia’s easternmost town.

Australia’s largest city, Sydney has a world-famous fireworks display
brightening the sky over the iconic Opera House in the city’s harbor,
attracting spectators from the world over.

Sydney

It took more than two hours for all of Australia’s three time zones to
past midnight. In the meantime, Japan’s Buddhist temples will have
celebrated the new year striking their gong 108 times at midnight, in an
effort to expel 108 types of human weakness and prepare for new
beginnings. Shinto households instead will have gone through a thorough
cleaning to welcome the kami (god) believed to be visiting at New
Year's. South Korea entered 2018 along with Japan with a fireworks display over
Seoul's Lotte World Tower, the fifth tallest skyscraper in the world. Its northern neighbor instead followed 30 minutes later with a
pyrotechnic show accompanied by live music performances in Pyongyang.North Korea created its own time zone in August 2015 to mark the 70th
anniversary of the liberation from Japanese rule, under which the
Korean peninsula was forced to change its time zone to match Japan.

Half
an hour later, 2018 began in China, the Philippines, Malaysia and
Singapore, where fireworks were lighting up the iconic Marina Bay.

Hong Kong

In Hong Kong, the fireworks display lit up the sky above the iconic Victoria Harbour to the sound of Auld Lang Syne remix. The world's tallest twin skyscrapers, the Petronas Twin Towers in
Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur, offered the backdrop to the fireworks welcoming
2018 in the country.

Kula Lumpur

Clancy's comment: All very flash and exciting, but what is the cost of these fireworks that are all over in a few minutes - millions of dollars that could have been spent on more needy issues. Just sayin' ...

I guess we have all seen these birds at some stage in our lives. There are plenty of them in Australia. So, here are some interesting facts about these creatures. By the way, a group of crows is called a ‘murder’. They are extremely
intelligent birds. Some have been observed using basic tools!

Quick Facts

Type: Bird

Diet: Omnivore

Life span: 7 years but have
been known to live as long as 14 years in the wild

Size: Length around 17.5
inches. Wing Span

Weight: 450g

Habitat: Almost any
environment, urban or rural

Range: Most of the UK,
Western Europe and East Asia

Scientific name: Corvus
Corone

Amazing Facts About the Carrion Crow

Crows are extremely intelligent
birds. They have the largest brain of all birds except for parrots. The
body to brain ratio of a crow is the equivalent of a chimpanzee! This
means that it is not far off that of humans.

Crows have been observed
using basic tools. For example, some crows in Japan use cars on the road
to crack open nuts. In some instances, crows have even been observed
using sticks to access food out of reach.

Crows have an excellent
memory. They have been known to hide food away to save it for later.
Sometimes moving the food 2-3 times, always remembering where it was
hidden.

Crows can be identified by
their distinctive ‘caw-caw’ sound. Considered song birds due to their
vast range of melodies, crows have been known to vocalise their feelings
in response to hunger or being threatened, for example.

Until recently, Carrion
crows and Hooded crows were thought to be the same species. However, they
are different, occupying different parts of Europe and Asia. In some
areas where territories overlap, interbreeding occurs. The Carrion crow
can be distinguished from the Hooded crow by it’s all black body compared
to the ash-grey body of the Hooded crow.

Crows can be distinguished
from rooks as they have feathers around their thighs and around the base
of their beak.

 Adult crows can be set apart from
juveniles by their black eyes. Juveniles have pale blue eyes and duller, more
brown plumage compared to an adult crow’s light violet gloss on their body
and greenish-blue gloss on their wings.

 Crows are often described as fearless. They
will chase eagles which can weigh nine times more than the crow! Despite their
fearlessness, crows are often still wary of people, who are their biggest
predator.

 Crows have been known to perform ‘anting’ where they rub ants all over their feathers or lie near an ant hill
allowing the ants to crawl through their feathers. It is yet unknown why
exactly birds do this. Some Suggest the ant act as an insecticide and anting
helps control parasites such as feather mites. Others argue it is carried out
as a method of catching prey – enticing the ants to rid themselves of their
poison sacks, allowing the birds to eat them harmlessly.

 When crows mate they often stay together for
life, separating only at death. However, some instances have found only the
females mate for life while the males will cheat on occasion!

 Crows build nests all over the
place: in pylons, trees and cliff edges, almost anywhere can be suitable. Nests
are built from twigs with a lining of hair and bark. Both the male and female
build the nest together and the female then incubates the eggs. Once the eggs
are hatched both birds help feed the chicks. A nestling crow can eat as
many as 100 grasshoppers in 3 hours!

 Crows are mostly resident. This means they do
not migrate and will stay near their breeding grounds. Crows living in urban
areas have a much smaller territory compared to those in rural areas. The
nesting territory of city crows is only 10% that of rural crows.

 Scavengers by nature, a crow’s diet can
involve over 1000 different food items. From worms, insects and carrion to
scraps of food, fruit and seeds.

 Crows are very good egg
thieves. They will watch other birds build their nests, observing and
inspecting what the birds do. This makes it much easier for the crow to rob the
nest once the eggs have been laid. As highly opportunistic birds, crows will
watch other birds bringing their young food, which they may swoop in and steal!

Clancy's comment: These birds are ancient. They are probably the first bird I recall seeing on black and white television as a kid.

Welcome to some background on a very successful and talented Aboriginal. Sir Douglas Ralph Nicholls, KCVO OBE was a prominent Aboriginal
Australian from the Yorta Yorta people. He was a professional athlete,
Churches of Christ pastor and church planter, ceremonial officer and a
pioneering campaigner for reconciliation.

Pastor Doug
Nicholls was born in Cumeroogunga NSW in 1906. His elder sister Hilda was
taken from the family when he was only eight and she was sixteen. Doug
Nicholls never forgot the trauma created by the incident.

Nicholls
came to Melbourne in 1927 seeking a football career after success with country
club Tongala. Carlton rejected him, amid racial resentment from
teammates, so he turned to Northcote Football Club; the family boarding him
were supporters of the ‘Brickfielders’. Nicholls debuted for Northcote in
1927 and was paid £2 for the game. To supplement the income provided by
football, Nicholls, like many teammates, was given work with the Northcote
Council’s outdoor staff during the season. In the off-season, Nicholls
travelled the country with Jimmy Sharman’s Boxing Troupe. Members of the
public could challenge a member of the troupe to a bout. Nicholls had
discovered his boxing ability after a fight on a sheep ranch he was working on
prior to coming to Melbourne.

Nicholls
soon established himself as a star player, and as the only Aborigine playing
senior football in the state; he was Northcote’s number one drawcard. He
had outstanding speed, having also competed in professional sprint races, and
was lauded as one of the game’s outstanding wingmen. He played in the
club’s first Premiership in 1929 before the lure of League football could no
longer be resisted. Northcote had withstood the advances of Carlton and
Collingwood for Nicholls’ services, but following the 1931 season, he
transferred to Fitzroy. In five seasons he played 54 games, finishing
third in the club’s best and fairest count in 1934 and representing Victoria in
1935. With failing eyesight, Nicholls left Fitzroy and returned to
Northcote in 1938, before retiring in 1939.

A
visit in the early 1930s to the Northcote Church of Christ would be a
life-changing event for Doug Nicholls. Struggling to deal with the death
of his mother as well as suffering from a knee injury, the church was an inspiration
to Nicholls. He soon converted to the church, becoming a pastor in
1939. Football had opened doors for Nicholls that were closed to so many
of his people, and he used his position to advance their cause. In 1939
he was a key speaker at an Aboriginal Night where he called for social justice
and equality for Aborigines. He was also involved in the newly created
Australian Aborigines’ League.

His
association with football continued and in 1944, with the VFA in recess,
Nicholls arranged for an Aboriginal Football Team to play an exhibition match
against Northcote. Several thousand football starved supporters came to
the match, with proceeds going to the Aboriginal welfare funds. The
success of the match saw the exhibition repeated in later years. Nicholls
also coached Northcote in 1947, although the club had a poor season, finishing
last. In the same year he was appointed curator of Northcote Park.
He stayed in that position until 1956, living in the house provided at the park
and dividing his time between the curator’s responsibilities and working for
Aboriginal causes.

To
combat the problem of Aboriginal homelessness, Nicholls led an effort to
purchase the All Saints Church vicarage in Cunningham St, Northcote.
Nicholls formed a committee, which became the Aborigines’ Advancement League to
help raise funds for the purchase. The large home was converted into a
hostel for Aboriginal girls, opening in 1958. In 1957 Nicholls was
appointed the field officer for the Aborigines’ Advancement League. In
1962 a similar hostel for boys was opened across the road and then in 1967 the
‘Douglas Nicholls Centre’ was opened adjoining the original hostel. The
centre contained recreational and meeting facilities.

Throughout
his career as a crusader for Aboriginal rights, the Doug Nicholls approach was
for acceptance and reconciliation. He asked white people: “…is there a
reason why we should not march beside you? Do you extend to us the hand
of friendship?” He was prepared to be involved in events like the Batman
Treaty re-enactments, which some considered demeaning to Aborigines.
Nicholls felt that they brought attention to the nation’s history and of the
Aboriginals place as the original owners of the land. He co-founded the
Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders,
helped develop more housing alternatives for Aboriginal children and was part
of the creation of a national day of remembrance.

Nicholls
approach worked. He was awarded an M.B.E. in 1957, made a Justice of the
Peace in 1962, named Father of the Year and given an O.B.E. In 1972 he
was the first Aboriginal to be knighted. By the 1970s some Aborigines,
encouraged by the Black Power Movement, were promoting a more aggressive stance
in their campaign for equality. While such an approach would not have
been possible without the efforts of Nicholls, it signalled an end to his style
of campaign.

In
keeping with his intention to always demonstrate that Aborigines were capable
of holding any post, Sir Douglas Nicholls accepted the appointment of Governor
of South Australia in 1976. He was the first Aboriginal to hold such a
position. Unfortunately he was forced to retire after just one year in
office after suffering a severe stroke. Nicholls and his wife returned to
live in Northcote following his period as South Australian Governor. He
died in 1988 and was given a state funeral before being buried at Cumeroogunga.

When
the headquarters of the Aboriginal Advancement League began to fall into
disrepair in the late 1970s, the League was able to secure land from the
Victoria Government on the site of the old Glen Iris Brick Company. This
was the first freehold land granted to Aboriginals in Victoria, fittingly it
was in Northcote. Through the state and federal governments, along with
the Aboriginal Development Commission and the League itself, $750,000 was
raised for the construction of a new centre. Alongside, the centre, a
playing oval was built: The Sir Douglas Nicholls Reserve. Northcote
has remained a centre for Aboriginal people in Melbourne with over 1,000
calling the city of Darebin home, making it one of the largest Indigenous
communities in Melbourne. Doug Nicholls played an instrumental role in
making Northcote, and Darebin, a home for Aboriginal Australians.

A loyal German
shepherd has refused to leave the side of his owner, even though he had been
dead for nearly six years. Well, believe it or not, the old dog still spends
his days waiting by his deceased owner’s grave, 10 years after he passed.

Capitan’s
undying loyalty for his master first made headlines in 2012, when local papers
in the Argentinian town of Villa Carlos Paz reported that the dog spent
every day waiting by the grave of his owner, Miguel Guzmán, who had died
in 2006. The dog disappeared from the family home a few months later, and
Guzmán’s widow, Veronica, was shocked to find him by her late husband’s grave,
when she went to visit him at the cemetery. She and her son, Damian, tried
taking him home several times, but he always ran back to be by Miguel’s side.
Eventually, they understood that nothing they did could ever fill the void in
Capitan’s heart, so they let him be with his beloved master.

Over the years, Capitan won the affection and
respect of cemetery caretakers, who made sure that he was well-fed and
vaccinated every year, but time has taken a toll on the aging canine. He is
15-year-old now, has lost his sight almost completely and can barely walk, but
he still stands by his owner’s grave, as if waiting for the day when they will
finally be reunited. He is still being taken care of, and receives medical
attention when he needs it, but there is no antidote for time.

“We have no
idea how he found the tomb because his owner did not die in Carlos Paz, but in
Cordoba,” Héctor Banegas, a retired caretaker at Carlos Paz Cemetery,
recently told La Opinion. “From there he was transferred to the
village for the wake and from there directly to the cemetery, he did not return
to his house and he did not see the dog again.”

“The big mystery is how Capitan didn’t forget
the scent of his master’s scent for months after his death,” Banegas added. “I
think he just sensed his spirit, that there was some communication between them
that led him to the grave.”Aldo Cecchi, a
canine trainer for more than 25 years, recently told Cadena 3that Capitan’s story is proof that dogs
are linked to their owner’s energy. “Dogs detect electormagnetic changes
and sound waves. If Captain intertwined his morphic field with that of his
master, he was able to find the place he was buried in.”

Whatever explanation
you’re comfortable with, one thing is for sure – Capitan is living proof of the
loyalty canines are capable of towards their human masters.
10 years is basically a lifetime for some dogs, and he spent all that time
waiting by his owner’s grave, hoping they would be together again one day.

Clancy's comment: Unconditional love, eh? They say that if you lock your dog and your wife/husband in the boot of your car for a few hours, when you open it the only one who will lick you is your dog.